THE COAL SHORTAGE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 113, 6 February 1919, Page 6

THE COAL SHORTAGE

Sir—l was gratified this morning at reading your paragraph on the "coal" position, and hurriedly put Tnu Dominion in my pocket happy in the prospect of, later in the day, imparting the good news to my wife and kiddies. We had settled to our evening dinner of cold tack (tinned moat and bread), flanked by a jug of warm tea handed over the fence by a thoughtful neighbour, and the probability of 10,000 tons of coal was mentioned with beaming countenances. Bflit my wife, with true feminine instinct, putting her finger on the weak spot, maintained that the 10,000 tons was intended for the ships and railways, and she added, with some vehemence, "Depend upon it, the suffering public will not benefit by a single bag." I confess I could not bring, myself entirely to the same view, and tried to pour oil on the troubled waters by stating my belief that the Acting-Premier (for whom I have a great respect) would not allow the common people to go wanting a commodity so essential as coal for't he hearth and range. As to the 300 lons. The population of Wellington and surrounding districts requiring coal must be about 80,000. The number of families in that population in dire need of coal for domestic purposes must be at least 6000. Three hundred tons divided among them will give one bag or lcwt. to each family, and that only after a vast deal of energy on the part of the State Coal Department, and

_j i_ & . unnecessarily sudden tear and wear pi their distributing plant. How long wiU one bag of coal servo a farailj'. of four of live persons ? During the winter and unseasonable spring we grinned and bore what we took to be part of our share in the sufferings of war. Now these times have passed, and the sooner the official mind can be moved to see that besides 6hips and railways there is a- third and very important consideration, the local domesJL* consumption, the better.—l aMj etc., FAMILY MAN. February i.